Do you self injure?

No, but have.

Am just waaaaaaaaay too timid to do so! ^^

I have a very good friend. She is now a doctor. She used to do so to the point where she is covered in scars. It is ashamed, since she is a strikingly beautiful woman. No matter how she has tried to explain it over the years, I cannot wrap my brain around it. Every fiber in my being fights to not get "hurt", so doing it to myself? Just don't get it. I am, however, beyond happy that she quit doing it years ago, although she does not speak of it in "bad" or "terrible" terms, even now. The odder thing is that to meet this woman, you would never, in a million years, think or see anything to indicate "pain in her life" she would speak of. Great family (whom she is still very close to), superb performance in school, sports and everything she ever touched. This is one activity that truly remains a deep mystery to me.

Interestingly, that is not considered "self injury" as is cutting...at least not by some in the medical community. There is a "different" syndrome at play there, so they say.

Honest question. How does it help you "cope"?

It gives you a feeling of release. It's almost like you feel you have something inside of you and the only way to get it out is to spill some blood.

I know this all to well. I was a cutter for a long time. I hide it by cutting the top of my arms, my thighs, and other places no one could see. I haven't done it in sometime, but I do still self harm. I just pull my hair or something along those lines. Pain does make me feel better. It's odd, but nothing else gives that feeling of release.

no never have but I have heard about individuals who do this its some type of disorder i believe its a mental thing.

I started cutting myself around the age of 12. No one was there for me to express my feelings. I wasn't allowed to let my feelings out. I bottled everything up inside and the only way I could seem to release any of my pain was by turning it from an emotional experience into a physical one.

Like Beck, I only cut in places that no one would see. I didn't do it to get attention, I did it because I needed to be relieved of the emotional pain I was dealing with. The top of my thighs are pretty scarred up. I went a couple of years here and there without doing it, but somehow always ended up going back to it.

It's been over a year now since the last time I did it. I'm not proud of it, but when I was young, that was all I could do, all I had.

A lot of people don't understand it, but it is a release. It's like when you're really angry and you punch a pillow or something. It lets out your emotions without hurting anyone or 'bothering' anyone. It was easier for me to do it to myself than burdening my mother with what I was going through.

After you've done it for a long time, it's hard NOT to go to that when you're struggling. It's all about learning a different way of coping with your emotions. A HEALTHIER way. Journaling, talking with someone you feel comfortable with, listening to music, anything that makes you feel better.

^ this

picking, not letting wounds heal, etc is just as much self injury as cutting if it's done for the same reasons. the majority of self injurers i've know have also battled with picking, and i've seen worse scars from that and had more concerns over infection. i think it's just more "socially acceptable" because there are people who just have a bad habit of picking at their face, scabs, etc so it's less shocking to people who just aren't capable of understanding other forms of self injury.